Once a rental hire is finished it is necessary to produce an invoice. A cash customer, for example, requires an invoice immediately to allow for the settlement of any imbalance between the deposit taken at the start of the rental and the total cost of the hire. Additionally, there is no reason why an invoice cannot be produced for account customers at the end of the hire (even though it will not be paid by the driver) as it is a good time to produce the charges and generate the postings to accounts, therefore avoiding a last minute rush of invoicing all agreements that have been forgotten before the month end. However, this is ultimately an operational decision.
This form is typically displayed when the OK command button is selected following entry of the appropriate details in the Finish Rental form. However, an invoice can also be printed at any time by selecting Print / Invoice from the File Menu within the Agreement form.
Tip: This option is only enabled if their are tariff rates or charges with a quantity value within the prices tab; else, a form displays the message: There is nothing to be invoiced.
To print an invoice:
From the Master Menu, select the Vehicle rentals option and Company required.
The VEHICLE RENTALS Menu is displayed.
Select the Reservations option.
The Reservations and Availability form is displayed.
Select the 
icon
or, alternatively, the Print / Invoice option from the
File menu.
The Print Invoice form is displayed;
This form is divided into three parts that are as follows:
In addition to displaying the form name the Title Bar provides a number of other useful identification criteria and buttons.
Tip: If the Fleet Booking Screen checkbox is ticked in the
General 5 Tab of System Parameters then once the Fleet Agreement number is
accessed via the ![[...]](Ellipsis.gif){kind=small}
button immediately to the right of the
Fleet Agree(ment Number) in the Create Booking form, this creates a link
between the Rental Agreement and Fleet Agreement; once linked the Registration number on the Fleet Agreement is written to the
Label for Spare text 1 field in the General Tab to assist in the search for
rental agreements from Fleet and vice versa. In addition. however, the "relief" vehicle description is shown in the titlebat
to allow the user to select the appropriate date range to invoice up to.
The Print Invoice dialogue box contains the following fields:
SL Account: Perhaps the most important field within the booking/agreement. Dependent upon the selection made within this field extremely important default record values are brought into play within the invoice from the CRM record linked to the Sales Ledger account record. This field cannot be edited.
Vehicle group: The vehicle hire group code. This can be up to four characters in length. The Hire group table is initially set up within Miscellaneous Options. This field cannot be edited.
Tariff type: The tariff code. This can be up to two characters in length. The Tariff Types table is initially set up within Miscellaneous Options. This field cannot be edited.
Registration: The registration number of the vehicle allocated to the agreement via the Allocation process. This field cannot be directly edited.
Rental from: Consists of two distinct fields. This is the start date and time for the rental hire period. This field cannot be directly edited.
The second Rental from field displays the start time for the rental hire period. This field cannot be directly edited.
To: Consists of two distinct fields. This is the end date and time for the rental hire period. This field cannot be directly edited.
The second To field displays the end time for the rental hire period. This field cannot be directly edited.
Invoice from: Consists of two distinct fields. This is the start date and time for the rental invoicing period. This field contains the same value as the Rental From field and cannot be directly edited.
The second Invoice from field displays the start time for the rental invoicing period. This field contains the same value as the Rental From time field and cannot be directly edited.
To: Consists of two distinct fields. This is the end date and time for the rental invoicing period.
The drop-down-arrow button may be used to invoke a monthly diary form in order to assist in establishing the required invoice to date criteria (as the agreement does not necessarily have to be invoiced to the end of the hire period). Selection of the < button moves to the previous month and the > button moves to the next month. Selection of Exit exits the diary form. A double-click on the appropriate day of the month enters this date into the appropriate field. Tab or click with the mouse to move to the time field.
Tip: If the agreement is partially invoiced then after the invoice is generated the agreement may be reviewed and the remaining days to be invoiced may be viewed within the Prices Tab.
The second To field displays the end time for the rental invoicing period. This field cannot be directly edited.
The invoice grid displays the following details:
Checkbox: Enables selection and deselection of existing charges to be invoiced; these charges remain on the agreement to allow invoicing at a later date. This functionality typically works with the Split Invoicing functionality (see Split Invoicing Priority field in the Priorities 2 Tab of System Parameters) whereby an alternative SL Account may be selected. For example, certain charges may be deselected (by removing the tick) and one SL Account invoiced; then, an alternative SL Account may be selected and the same charge(s) can be reselected and invoiced to the new account.
Code: Displays a blank field for tariff rates. However, for charges this field displays the charge code (set up within the Charges table).
Note: As stated, this column is normally blank for tariff rates; however, if the Customer Discounts option is used from the Miscellaneous Options menu to generate a percentage discount for a Sales Ledger/Hire Group combination then the discount percentage is placed in this column (e.g. 10) against the correct tariff rate unit.
Tip: Charge codes (such as fuel, excess mileage etc) should be validated prior to accessing the Print Invoice from as they cannot be removed within the form. If a charge needs to be removed, edited or added then select the Cancel command button and make the necessary changes within the Prices Tab and then select Print / Invoice from the File Menu within the Agreement form again.
Description: For tariff lines the system displays the tariff description associated with the tariff code selected within the agreement e.g. Daily Long Trm. For charge lines the system displays the description associated with the charge code (set up within the Charges table.
V: The VAT code applicable to the tariff or charge.
R: For tariff lines this column is blank. However for charge lines the system displays the current charge rate for the charge. Up to five charge rates may be defined against each charge code.
The hire of a portable phone, for example, may only be charged at a single rate, regardless of the vehicle it is being hired with. A CDW charge on the other hand may be quite different when charged against vehicles in different groups.
Unit: For tariff lines the Unit column always displays the same five fixed tariff units against which tariff values are held, namely:
- Hours
- Days
- Weekends
- Weeks
- Months
In the case of charge lines the system displays unit values where a unit has been specifically defined against a charge e.g. Litres may be defined as the fuel charge unit in the Charge file.
Quantity: For tariff lines the quantity is automatically calculated by the system (although this may be manually edited). Dependent upon background set-up the quantity may be defined as, for example, 1 month, 2 weeks and 4 days. For charge lines the quantity may be automatically calculated (for example, the quantity for a CDW charge is automatically calculated as the number of days in the agreement; however, it may also be manually input when a new charge is added.
Tip: This tab works in conjunction with the Invoiced Tab. For any quantity values that are invoiced (be they days, weeks, charges, etc) the corresponding values are subtracted from the Prices Tab.
Unit Price: For tariff lines the quantity is automatically calculated by the system (although this may be manually edited). The values are calculated from the appropriate tariff rates table for the hire groups/tariff combination selected within the agreement; however, these may be overridden by Customer Specific tariff rates (where applicable). For charge lines the value may be automatically calculated if a value is set-up within the rates field in the Charges table; however, it may also be manually input when a new charge is added.
Amount: The Unit Price multiplied by the Quantity.
VAT amount: The Amount value multiplied by the value held against the associated VAT code.
Totals - Amount: Totals the Amount column (Unit Price multiplied by the Quantity).
Totals - VAT Amount: Totals the VAT Amount column (the Amount value multiplied by the value held against the associated VAT code.
Grand Total: The grand total of the Totals - Amount and Totals - VAT Amount field.
Previous invoices The total value of any previous invoices generated against this agreement.
COMMAND BUTTONS:
Invoice: This form is typically displayed when the OK command button is selected following entry of the appropriate details in the Finish Rental form. In this case, when the Invoice command button is selected the agreement is invoiced and the agreement status is moved to Returned.
Before the invoice printing routine is allowed to complete the system validates the credit limit on the sales ledger account concerned. If the credit limit has been exceeded then the system offers you the chance to Re-edit, Quit or Continue.
Align: If dot-matrix printers are being used then selection of this command button performs a page feed function to the printer so that the top of the page is correctly aligned for printing the invoice.
Reprint: Should any problems have been encountered during the printing of the invoice (typically printer related) then this command button is enabled to allow a reprint of the invoice.
Edit: Enables a rental or charge line to be edited (via the Enter Price Details form) - dependent upon permission levels.
New Charge: Enables a new charge line to be added (via the Enter Price Details form) prior to invoicing. If the broker functionality is being used then the standard functionality which prompts to add the same charge to the supplier side is retained). In addition De-select any charges to be invoiced but they must remain on the agreement to allow invoicing at a later date.
Cancel: Returns to the Agreement form without invoicing the agreement. The invoice can be printed at a later time by selecting Print / Invoice from the File Menu within the Agreement form.
Help: Provides online access to context sensitive help for the current application using the default browser.
